In this issue:
2021-2022 Student Manifesto by CSULB Theatre Arts Department Student Organization Representatives
Pronoun Prioritization by Amy King
Bodily Autonomy in the Theatre Industry by Rhiannon Lewis
Gimcrack! by Mattie Limas
2021-2022 Student Manifesto
by CSULB Theatre Arts Department Student Organization Representatives
The following is a list of demands the student organizations created and submitted to faculty and staff at the beginning of the fall semester, in the interest of creating a more equitable department and addressing concerns from 2 years ago that have not yet been resolved.
Dear CSULB Theatre Department Faculty and Staff, Chair Anthony Byrnes, Dean Robin Bargar, and Assistant Dean Margaret Black,
After speaking with faculty, staff, students, and alumni, the current student body has created a list of demands and concerns. We as student organization representatives see a need to rework department processes. Please recognize that any concern within this document is bred from repeat offenses or previous CSULB Theatre tradition that we identify as harmful. This is a collaborative effort between all student organizations with inputs from the entire department. That means that this change may be sparked by the students but must be a group effort with both the faculty/staff and student body.
GREATER AGENCY & SUPPORT
We demand the creation of an ad hoc committee of students that are charged with the responsibility of curating the Cal Rep season. This will be a replacement of the previous format of one graduate student and one undergraduate student being included in show selection meetings.
We demand that department resources serve ALL students, not only a select few.
We demand that the students' voices are heard and accounted for when addressing both the curation and creation of CSULB’s theatrical seasons moving forward.
We demand that there is not any inherent hindrance and prejudice when talking about mainstage and Threshold. It is currently not efficient for Theatre Threshold to have to work around mainstage production scheduling.
We demand that advertising responsibility for events be handed over to student organization leaders for better handling and publicity.
We demand that one of the eight main stage productions be a collaborative piece with Theatre Threshold; we demand that the resources typically provided to a mainstage production be utilized and shared with Theatre Threshold for this collaborative piece.
We demand that access to professional artists not be reserved to just 2-4 opportunities per year.
We demand that the audition and casting process is reorganized to support and empower the students.
IMPROVED DIVERSITY TRAINING FOR STAFF AND FACULTY
We demand gender and sexuality diversity training for faculty.
We demand that all programs provide a space for learning, and actively fight against any type of prejudice, favoritism, or perpetuates the current supremacy present within the pedagogy of theatre arts.
We demand that educational spaces are restructured to be anti-discriminatory when it comes to gender, sex, race, nationality, age, ability, sexual orientation, and religion.
We demand that faculty are responsible for knowing and respecting students’ pronouns and using them correctly.
We demand a rearrangement of the ways in which class scenes are assigned; oftentimes scenes in the classroom are assigned by gender, which may disenfranchise many gender-queer students.
We demand that members of this department are held accountable for past grievances and work toward bettering the department for future students.
INCREASED WORKSHOP OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS
We demand more intimacy coordination workshops with Theatrical Intimacy Education, for both students and faculty respectively.
We demand a way for technical theatre students to become trained to work on mainstage productions now that the graduate technical students are no longer charged with that responsibility.
We demand more prioritization of the needs of the technical theatre students. Technical theatre students should have greater access to tech-specific guest speakers, workshops, showcases, and more.
COLLEGE OF THE ARTS COLLABORATION INITIATIVE
We demand that there be a synergy of communication brought forth between all COTA programs so that together, we can innovate and push forward.
We demand an open space for COTA for students to frequently showcase their work.
We demand assistance from the Theatre Arts department in coordinating this initiative.
We hope that these initiatives build a more connected community and help bridge the gap between students, faculty, and staff. We greatly appreciate the opportunity to meet with you to further discuss these plans. We look forward to collaborating with faculty and staff to better serve the student body.
Sincerely,
2021-2022 Student Representatives of:
Theatre Threshold
Student Association of Theatre Arts
Artists in Black
Feminist Theatre Makers
Pronoun Prioritization
by Amy King
As we return to in-person classes, we do our best to return to normalcy. We attempt to accommodate everyone’s comfort levels regarding COVID, as well as try to dismantle systemic issues that put students’ mental health at risk. The CSULB Student’s Manifesto demanded that teachers undergo gender and sexuality diversity training. As a teacher myself, I try to prioritize learning my students’ pronouns. While on zoom, I often asked students who are comfortable to share their pronouns in their name, as a reminder for myself and the rest of the class. I see the outward naming of pronouns on zoom to be a benefit for me; they serve as a constant reminder.
I’ve realized that reflecting on this as a “benefit” is actually just an excuse for me to not learn pronouns. Returning to classes in person, I worry that more and more students’ pronouns will be disrespected because of the lack of this “safety net.” Without the ability to see people’s pronouns right in front of us, we have to rely on memory, which begs the question: “Am I really deconstructing gender, or am I just memorizing the select non-binary pronouns?”
Furthermore, I have noticed that when someone goes by two or more pronouns (most often “she/they” or “he/they”) that I myself, fellow students and fellow teachers tend to only use the pronoun that exists in the binary (“he/she”). Presumably, they think “well, [name] is okay with she, so therefore I will refer to them by the gender I assume them to be, based on the body I am perceiving. This mentality resigns to not deconstructing gender, and upholds the idea that gender is determined by the body you are born into. In 2021, this cannot continue.
Respecting gender pronouns means respecting them equally, understanding that if someone goes by more than one pronoun, that is not an excuse to stop working on gender deconstruction. In fact, it’s a further call to deconstruct the idea that every person assumes a singular gender identity. As a cisgendered, heterosexual female, I do not understand the isolating experience of being misgendered, and I never will. I try my best to focus my attention on listening and learning about other people’s experiences. When I mess up, I focus my attention on the damage caused, and not my remorse in causing it. At this moment, my focus is remembering that not only is gender more than a binary, it does not have to be singular and does not have to be fixed. And more importantly than anything, we must listen to people when they give us information on their identity.
Bodily Autonomy in the Theatre Industry
by Rhiannon Lewis
After my first year of college, I made the very difficult decision to change my major. As disappointing as it has felt to be a “theatre school dropout,” I have regained so much more control over my body.
Last November right before my nineteenth birthday, I got my first tattoo. I had been thinking about it for at least a year beforehand. It is very special to me, and I purposefully ensured that it was something incredibly meaningful to me because, newsflash, it will be there forever. I also convinced myself to get it in a spot that is completely hidden, and looking back, way smaller than I would have liked. I made these decisions to have it always covered by clothes, even swimsuits, so no one except me would be able to see due to a self-imposed fear that I would never be able to get my foot in the door as an actor with visible tattoos.
You might be thinking that I’m crazy because plenty of actors have visible tattoos. But for some reason, a lot of young actors in school or taking classes elsewhere feel the pressure that they will never book a role if they do or don’t look a certain way. The way my brain convinced me to see it was that a lot of actors get tattoos after they have already booked their first roles, and built their reputations before permanently altering the way they look. Production teams would be more willing to spend the money on a makeup team and materials to cover tattoos for actors who are already household names.
The problem is that while a teacher usually wouldn't explicitly tell their student to change the way they look in order to get roles (but some do), it is usually implied. They teach that your “look” is crucial to the types of roles you book, and you are deemed less marketable and changeable when you have permanent things on your body. Society as a whole has become more progressive with formerly taboo things like tattoos and piercings, and the theatre industry needs to adapt as well. The way a person looks does not determine their ability, talent, work ethic, passion, and so on. So many students develop these fears that they will never be successful to the point where they lose bodily autonomy like I did. I think this leads to a larger discussion about body dysmorphia in the industry in general and why young people feel this pressure. Many of these strict guidelines about tattoos or piercings are self-imposed by young students like myself who are trapped in the mindset that you have to do anything you possibly can to get a role, but we enforce them on ourselves because the idea is implanted by mentors and older adults in the industry that we trust.
As soon as I made the decision to change my major over the summer, it was like a huge weight was lifted off of my shoulders. I got my nose pierced, and I already have my next two tattoos lined up. I feel like I can finally express myself in a way that I was not allowing myself to before. Tattoos and piercings are forms of art, and I want to be able to share that art with other people by having those things visible. There’s no reason that those things can’t be an integral part of my work as a theatre artist either. It’s cool for my tattoos to have meaning if I choose that, but they also can just look really cool on my body (sorry mom lol). It is empowering to make these choices that may define how other people perceive me, regardless of whether it makes me “less cast-able.” I don’t think I want to work in an environment where I wouldn’t be able to outwardly express myself anyway.
Gimcrack!
by Mattie Limas
In an interview with The Telegraph, when discussing his musical Marry Poppins, producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh was asked whether or not he could envision a trans actress playing the lead role, to which he responded, “You can’t implant something that is not inherently there in the story or character, that’s what I think. Just to do that, that becomes gimmick casting. It’s trying to force something that isn’t natural” (Peterson).
Gimmick
gimᐧmick | ˈɡimik · noun
a trick or device intended to attract attention, publicity, or business.
Transgender
trans·gen·der | tranzˈjendər · adjective
not that.
The words of Sir Cameron Mackintosh - the British super-producer known for such hits as Phantom of the Opera, Mary Poppins, and Cats - while egregious, also bring to mind how the stories we see on stage influence the stories we tell ourselves about gender.
What stood out to me about Mackintosh’s statements was the use of the word “gimmick.” Sianne Ngai best describes a gimmick in her book Theory of the Gimmick: Aesthetic Judgment and Capitalist Form as something that is “simultaneously overperforming and underperforming.” It is something that claims to be great while being cheap, overrated, and overvalued. It loudly and pesteringly calls upon itself in the same way a “precocious child” would (Koenig). It is ubiquitous in that it can take shape in Rube Goldberg machines, video games, magic shows, and vaudeville performances. With that in mind, what kind of connection exists between gimmicks and transgender identities?
Stunt casting is a term that refers to when a celebrity or famous non-actor fills a role for a film, television series, or stage production. Examples include Wendy Williams being cast in Chicago, Corbin Bleu in In the Heights, and Rosie O’Donnell in Grease. In some situations, the arrangement works out masterfully, like with Reba McEntire as Annie Oakley; in other situations, it pans out for the worse. Nonetheless, the casting manages to bring loads of press and attention, which in turn increases ticket-sales revenue. And while good stunt casting exists, most of the time it detracts and pulls away from the story in exchange for lackluster, but attention-grabbing, performances. When Mackintosh refers to "gimmick," I believe that when he envisions a transgender Marry Poppins, he only sees the casting being a superficial lacquer to the production, and ultimately, a cash grab.
However, what Sir Cameron Mackintosh and the larger cisgender imaginary struggle with is a lack of innovation, foresight, and creativity. I say this because the casting of a trans actor in these kinds of roles is not hypothetical like he suggests, but something that has been happening since the dawn of theatre. And when it happens, the production only transforms into something magnificent and visionary. Recent productions like the Pasadena Playhouse production of Little Shop of Horrors have already done so, with stars like M. J. Rodriguez demonstrating the universality of the lives of people like Audrey, and how these storylines are not exclusive to cis white women.
A character being able to walk through magic mirrors, fly, or exist as an anthropomorphized cat is all fair game to audiences and production teams because these ventures in imagination do not challenge the social expectations of gender, race, class, and wealth. These are ultimately fantasies of no risk and no threat.
However, when a character calls upon us to witness them in ways we are not used to, it challenges our expectations of who these narratives should be designated to. If Mary Poppins, as a trans woman, is able to perform the duties of a nanny and be a well-functioning member of a familial unit, then wouldn’t that upset the narrative that queer people are predators? If Christine Daae, as a trans woman, is designated as the “Angel of Music,” then wouldn’t that upset our expectations of sexual dimorphism and rob cis white women of the femininity that should only be afforded to them? These ventures in imagination are potent, filled with the potential of radically changing the minds of audiences. Therefore, it is a threat to the foundations that cis-hetero-normativity has worked so hard to build.
To say then that casting a queer person is a gimmick is a complete misunderstanding of the word. Queer people on stage have the capacity for completely changing storylines, challenging the status quo, and diversifying what it means to be beautiful, simply by being present. The radical nature of our existence defies words like “cheap, overrated, and overvalued.” When Mackintosh says “gimmick,” he does not say so from a place of apathy, but of fear. It is a fear of queer artist’s ability to make art that actually “pushes the needle forward,” challenging what we know to be true about who gets to be on stage and what stories are told on that stage (Gaffney). Queer storytelling is much more than a gimmick. It is transgressive, and in that way, it is closer akin to the origin of the word:
Gimmick (n.)
1910, American English, perhaps an alteration of gimcrack, or an anagram of magic.
Sources:
Gaffney, Shannon. “Not a Gimmick – Equity for Transgender Actors.” OnStage Blog, OnStage Blog, 6 Sept. 2021, www.onstageblog.com/editorials/2021/9/6/not-a-gimmick-equity-for-transgender-actors.
Koenig, Andrew. “Gimme More: On SIANNE Ngai's ‘Theory of THE GIMMICK.’” Los Angeles Review of Books, 10 Aug. 2020, lareviewofbooks.org/article/gimme-more-on-sianne-ngais-theory-of-the-gimmick/.
Peterson, Christopher. “Sir Cameron MACKINTOSH Says Transgender Casting Would ‘Damage the Integrity’ of Classic Shows.” OnStage Blog, OnStage Blog, 27 Aug. 2021, www.onstageblog.com/editorials/2021/8/27/sir-cameron-mackintosh-says-transgender-casting-would-damage-the-integrity-of-classic-shows.
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